Escape-Rate Crossover between Quantum and Classical Regimes in Molecular Magnets: A Diagonalization Approach

Abstract

We have studied numerically the quantum-classical crossover in the escape-rate for an uniaxial spin system with an arbitrarily directed field. Using the simple quantum transition-state theory, we have obtained the boundary separating the first- and the second-order crossover and the escape-rate in the presence of the transverse and longitudinal field. The results apply to the molecular nanomagnet, ${\rm Mn_{12}}$.